and he mentioned that if half was settled upon his widow and the other
half on his daughters after his death, it would be a real advantage to
him, which both said should be done, if he would attend the House to-
day. Most probably he will propose it in the House [8] and the
intelligence will be conveyed by William. I think I sent you word we
had heard from Lord Collingwood--the date the 20th., of January,
therefore I imagine he must have been off Cadiz.


Yet even this suggestion to reward the man to whom England owed so much
met with considerable opposition. "Lord Collingwood's Annuity Bill came on
again on Monday," wrote Mrs Stanhope on February 28th. "Your Father still
hopes it will be settled on Lady Collingwood and her daughters, tho' Lord
H. Petty does not approve of the change, Lord Castlereagh and Mr Sheridan
are both of your Father's opinion."

Stanhope, however, carried his point and earned the gratitude of the
family of the absent Admiral. It is true that when the news first reached
Collingwood of the discussion relating to his pension which had taken
place in the House, he was deeply wounded. Some of the speeches seemed to
him to imply that the representation of the slender state of his finances
had been made with his concurrence, and he felt, as he told his wife, that
he had been held up in the House as an object of compassion. "If I had a
favour to ask," he wrote emphatically, "money would be the last thing I
should require from an impoverished country. I have motives for my conduct
which I would not give in exchange for a thousand pensions." But when he
heard of Stanhope's amendment of the original proposition, and that Lady
Collingwood and his daughters would now profit by the thoughtfulness of
his kinsman, he wrote an acknowledgment of such efforts on his behalf with
a sincere gratitude in which pride still mingled.